Room temperature multiferroic heterostructure: Nd: BiFeO3/YMnO3

In order to search candidate multiferroics, a heterostructure of Nd:BiFeO3/YMnO3 (BFO/YMO) was designed. It was fabricated using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on (111) Nb: SrTiO3 substrate through layer-by-layer growth. The particularly interesting phases for Nd:BiFeO3 (P4mm) and YMnO3 (hexagonal and orthorhombic) were observed. This film has a high ferromagnetic Curie temperature at 420 K. The ferroelectric domain switching was observed and it exhibited large electromechanical coupling with maximum d33∼73 pm/V at 10 V.

► Nd:BiFeO3/YMnO3 heterostructure was obtained using PLD method.
► Particularly interesting phases for Nd:BiFeO3 and YMnO3 were obtained.
► This film had a high ferromagnetic Curie temperature at 420 K.
► We observed ferroelectric domain switching and large electromechanical coupling.